They Must Be Blind
by sunkissedvampire
Summary: After finally hearing the truth, Zim changes, and for better or worse, he's stuck here on Earth with the rest of us. This will be a series of one shots following the same general story line. May contain Zim/OC, might not. Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

A/N ~ So this idea came to me after I drew an Invader Zim picture, to see it (Which I suggest you do to understand the story a bit more) you can go to DeviantArt and look me up, it's the same username. While I'm writing these shorts, if anyone wants to come along and adopt the idea to make it a full on story then let me know and I will gladly allow you too. Sorry for any Errors in it.

Disclaimer~ Invader Zim is not my creation, if it was, I would fear for my life…lol XD

He stood at the edge of the cliff looking down over the disgusting city that belched out smoke and trash. He did not fear being seen without his disguise, he had long ago gotten rid of it. He realized that the humans were blind. They were blind to everything around them, to what they did, and to who they hurt. Zim could walk down into that city right now, and they would probably just think he was a nerd on his way to some convention.

Around the time that he had learned the humans were hopeless, his Tallest had contacted him with the truth, telling him that he was, in fact, banished. Zim had been stunned into a sad silence, he didn't even notice the shocked expression on Purple and Red's faces, Zim must have grown five feet! As distraught alien leaned forward and placed his hands on the control panel in front of him for support the two tallest shared a glance of worry and strangely enough, relief, they might just have unknowingly banished the next Tallest.

Now Zim had given up on his attempts to conquer the Earth, deciding to travel instead. He knew very little about the planet that he now would inhabit for the rest of his life, other than what he had learned in that pitiful excuse of a school. He was shocked when he found that not all of the world was like Dib's home town. Some places were cleaner; others dirtier, some were more Earth friendly, and some even had higher crime rates than others. This was one thing that had Zim curios, why did humans hurt each other? It seemed so pointless, nothing could be gained from it and it did not help their society in the least. Humans were selfish, he later decided, they cared little for others and ignored their planets plea for help. They weren't so different from Irkens after all.

A slight breeze ruffled his uniform, carrying the scent of smog, pollution, and filthy humans. Zim grimaced and glanced up in time to see a splash of color amongst the grey of the city, two butterflies fluttered above him, as if they were encouraging him. He was reminded once again why he had finally begun to like this planet; because even in the darkest of areas there was nature, although he used to find it disgusting. It was like the Earth was rebelling against the abuse.

He raised a hand to his chin in thought. This planet needed work, definitely. The humans needed to have their eyes opened to the world around them and realize what they were doing before they turned out to be like Irk, surviving off of technology and unable to live without it. Suddenly, cold metal PAK on his back sent a shiver up his spine and he frowned in annoyance.

These humans needed a leader, someone to steer them away from this fate, someone who could keep this planet from dying, someone who was far more superior to the filthy pig hu-…..Zim cleared his throat and closed his eyes before he chuckled, so he still thought himself superior, at least he wasn't screaming about it.

"Gir!" He called to his crazy SIR unit.

"Yes?" Gir sat behind him in a puddle of mud, covered in dirt and with a familiar butterfly perched on his head. Zim smiled, this was a new expression for him, and it was kind and filled with emotion.

"We have work to do, these humans are obviously too stupid to survive without us," Zim stated in his usual confident tone before moving away from the cliff edge and walking back into the forest to find the path that led back to the city.

"Okay! Can we get tacos first?" Gir trotted beside him in order to keep up with his master's long legged stride. Zim chuckled at his robots antics.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N~ Now that I have that out of the way, the chapters should begin to get longer.

Zim sat on a plush couch in a rather homey looking living room. The furniture and rug actually matched, unlike his old home base. His legs were stretched and resting on a dark wooden coffee table and a human laptop (with a few Irken upgrades) sat on his lap. A look of concentration was on his face as he scrolled through page after page of information; he had been sitting there for a few hours now, researching the many different types of human government.

There was a crash coming from a room down at the end of a hallway off to his left and the noise brought him out of his concentrated state. He reached up and rubbed his eyes with a sigh then took a sip from a soda that had been sitting on the end table next to him. He coughed as the watered down beverage stung his throat and growled. Staring at the computer screen in the same position for so long had put him in a bad mood. He turned his attention back to the laptop just as a vacuum started up from the back room. He winced as Gir screamed; it was soon followed by laughter.

Sometime later a woman pushed a vacuum into the living room with Gir riding on top of it, shouting in excitement and waving his arms in the air. Zim showed no sign of acknowledgment as the dark blonde pushed the cleaning machine around the carpet, when she came towards Zim he lifted his feet off the table just enough for her to get under his legs. As she passed he clearly heard her mutter 'Men', in an annoyed tone. He smirked and continued with his work.

Zim had met Elizabeth a few months ago, he had been walking down the streets casually, admiring how stupid the humans were and watching Gir chase after pigeons when the weird woman had walked past him. He thought nothing of her, thinking she was just another brainless human, until she came back and stopped in front of him. Zim slowed to a stop with his hands in his uniform pockets.

She was tall, at least a head shorter than him, with dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and an average figure…for a human. Zim smirked at his own thoughts. She stared at him with a confused look and with her mouth open, as if she wanted to say something.

"Speak up, pig-human, I have things to do," he had stated bluntly. Her look of confusion turned to one of annoyance and she still hadn't said anything, just as Zim was beginning to question her intelligence Gir jumped onto the woman's leg and hugged her.

"I like this one master! She smells nice!" The little robot cried. This seemed to break the woman out of her muteness.

"Alien," was the first word she said. She pointed at Zim as if he had done something wrong. Zim raised a brow (although he didn't really have any eyebrows).

"Congratulations, you're the first human in five years to figure out I was an alien," he pulled his shoulders back with a confident smirk.

"Right, you're…" she stumbled to find the right words, "you're not one of those 'Out to enslave the human race' kind of aliens are you?" This question seemed to have a couple of affects on Zim, at first he seemed annoyed that this woman had figured out his original mission so quickly, then he became thoughtful when he remembered that he was no longer on said mission, and finally, he grinned, realizing that he had a whole new mission to work on. Maybe he could use this human female to his advantage?

"No," he replied, "I'm more of the 'out to help the humans in any way possible' kind of alien." The woman seemed to relax a bit and turned her attention to the crazy and cute robot that was climbing up her leg. "My name is Zim," he added several seconds later.

"Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz," she replied in a somewhat bored tone, as if she had introduced herself this way a million times before. "This may sound weird, but I can't exactly walk away from finding and alien," she rubbed her arms nervously, "is there anything you need help with?"

"Unless you have a house I could use, then no, not really," Zim reached down and pulled Gir off Liz's leg and held the small robot in his arms.

"Well…I have a room…," Zim looked at her with something like excitement in his bright red pink eyes.

So Zim had been living with Elizabeth ever since, annoying her with his ridiculously loud voice and lack of manners daily. To a random observer it would seem like he was just mooching off the poor girl who was just barely able to stay afloat in the economic downfall, but if you watched carefully enough, you would find that, every few weeks, the alien would hand her a wad of fifties or hundreds. She would look at him gratefully and he would only smile kindly before turning back to whatever it was he had been working on.


	3. Chapter 3

Elizabeth often wondered what the alien did all day while she sat at her desk in the hospital, going over files and playing solitaire on the computer. Zim was up and already working when she dragged herself out of bed to get ready, and he was still up and working when she finally crawled back into bed later that night. He was starting to look a bit tired and ragged lately, did he even sleep? And more importantly, what was he doing? Elizabeth looked down at a doodle of a sleeping Gir she had drawn in thought, she should probably ask him and find out if there was anything she could do to help.

Now that her thoughts were on Zim, she wondered where he got all the money he had been giving her. Every couple of weeks he would hand her some cash even though she rarely saw him go out. She sighed and continued on with her day in a quiet mood.

When Elizabeth got home, Chinese takeout in hand, she nearly ran into Zim who was just about to leave.

"Where are you going?" She asked suspiciously with a raised brow. Zim smirked.

"None of your business Lizard-Human," he moved past her, "Gir, stay with the Earth filth, I'll be back later." He left after that, leaving Liz to share a curios glance with Gir, although, the robot soon lost interest and went back to playing with a rubber piggy.

Zim took a breath of the crisp night air before stepping off the front patio. He headed down the street and into the city where he hid in the shadows and waited. Normally, he would have gone to some unknown bar and play a round of poker with some half drunk jerks, but he didn't have the extra money at the moment and Liz needed to pay her bills as soon as possible. So he leaned against the wall of a dark alley with a sigh, he slid his hands into the pockets of his worn trench coat.

There were plenty of criminals roaming this city at night, which was pretty much the only reason he had decided to start here. It was only a matter of time before one stumbled into the shadows surrounding the alien and would find himself waking up several hours later with a screaming headache and an empty wallet.

Zim had no problem stealing from criminals and thugs, it didn't bother his conscious in the least, he thought they rightfully deserved it after everything they had done. People like Liz shouldn't live in a world full of crime and hate; they were to kind and trusting.

The clumsy shuffle of a drunken person pulled Zim out of his thoughts as an intoxicated man with a girl on each side walked by. Zim sighed and pulled his hands out of his pockets and made his way towards the trio…

Liz sat on the couch comfortably, a blanket wrapped around her and a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. She was watching some kind of romantic comedy and seemed completely focused on it despite the screaming Gir that was running around the coffee table chasing Liz's cat, Leo.

"I love you kitty!" He cried.

Liz smiled just as the front door opened and Zim walked in. He closed and locked the door before trudging into the living room with a weary sigh; he paused when he saw Liz.

"What are you doing up?" he glanced at the cable box that read 12:30.

"It's Friday night," she replied.

"Oh," he dropped onto the couch next to her and sighed again. He seemed tired, which was strange, because he never had before. A few seconds later, as if it was an afterthought, Zim held out a small wad of bills to Liz. She stared at the cash blankly before reaching out a hand for it.

"So how do you get this money?" she sounded suspicious.

"Poker," Zim yawned and Gir flung himself into his lap with a high pitched giggle and babbled on about waffles and mini moose. Zim smiled down at his evil minion, although they weren't so evil anymore.

Liz nodded before turning back to the movie. They ended up watching two more, and Liz was silently happy, for the first time since he had moved in Zim was doing something other than working. When the last movie had ended she turned to Zim about to tell him she was going off to bed, but she stopped.

Zim and Gir had fallen asleep. He was sitting up on the couch, one arm resting along the top, and lightly snoring with the sleeping robot in his lap.

Standing, she bent over and picked up the sleeping robot gently before throwing the blanket over Zim. She laid Gir down in Zim's lap again before covering him with a corner of the blanket. She stepped back, took in the scene, and giggled quietly before turning and heading off to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

An/ So I might need to get a new DA account, hehe, anyways my user name will be EmzySKV. Anyways, I had to take down all my work because I didn't want to lose it.

"I know you don't want to, but it's really starting to stink," Liz sat behind the wheel of an old mustang that was missing almost half of its paint job; the A.C. was turned off to save fuel. Zim sat next to her with his arms crossed and glared out the window, there was absolutely nothing wrong with his old uniform, the stupid earth stink had no clue what she was talking about.

For the past week she had been complaining about how old and worn the thing was looking, and now she had the nerve to say it smelled! Zim grumbled something and pulled the hood down over his eyes. He was wearing a large sweater and a pair of sweatpants loaned to him by Liz and he felt uncomfortable in the unusually loose clothing. The idea of walking into an Earthen store was horrible, and it was a walmart no less!

Liz pulled into the parking lot with ease and chuckled, she turned the car off once she had parked and stepped out into the cold air. Zim followed grumbling all the way. They had left Gir at home for obvious reasons, pets weren't allowed into the store, and he would probably go crazy and destroy the place.

Liz led him right into the men's section and instructed him to pick out what he liked; Zim gave her a warning glance before moving further into the section with a sigh. Honestly, that girl was going to drive him nuts one day. She was always ordering him around like he was some kind of slave, and when he protested she would raise a brow and say something like 'Do you want dinner?' Or threaten to drop a bucket of water on him when he wasn't looking. Of course Zim would laugh and say she would never be able to beat his superior alien senses, and then she would sigh and turn to do some kind of chore or errand and the next thing Zim knew, he was doing exactly what she had asked him to do!

He picked up a plain black shirt with a strange smiley face on it and was reminded of Dib, he looked at the price with a sigh; he didn't like it when she had to buy him stuff. Liz was too nice, she would probably die trying to save a rat rather then watch it suffer in some kind of trap, and Zim would probably just laugh at the inferior rodent. Most people would see Liz as a perfect little angel, but he knew otherwise, she jumped to conclusions a lot, she was easily frustrated, and often enough she was too lazy to even get out of bed on the weekends and even when she did she would sit watching T.V. with bed head for a few hours before Zim prodded her into actually fixing it. But she was nice and loved to laugh and tried her hardest to help others, not to mention, she was one of the few smart people on the planet.

Zim picked up a pair of dark blue ripped jeans and briefly wondered what size he was. He held the pants up to his waist and figured they were close enough, if they were too loose he would just have to use a belt. He took the clothes back to Liz, who was standing over a table covered in shirts. She looked up once she saw him approaching and took the clothes without even looking at the prices.

"Ok, you can pick out two more shirts and another pair of jeans, and then we need to get groceries," she dropped the clothing into a nearby shopping cart.

"You do it Lizard-human, I'm tired of shopping," Zim crossed his arms and Liz sighed before traveling further into the section. She picked out a Blink 182 shirt and was tempted to pick out a red one just for laughs, but she ended up picking another band t-shirt before grabbing another pair of jeans.

Zim followed Liz into the food section and complained about just about everything she picked up (except for junk food) and she ended up buying a bunch of food like instant macaroni and cheese and microwave meals. Zim thanked whatever gods there where that she was too oblivious to notice the Sale signs the hung over everything he picked out.

They journeyed home and after Liz had put all the food away she handed Zim a box of Macaroni and cheese.

"Your turn tonight," she stated simply before throwing herself onto the couch with a sigh and turning on the T.V. Zim stared at her blankly with his mouth hanging open.

"Master, you gonna make waffles?" Gir asked from atop the counter next to the stove, her wore a huge smile that showed through the dog suit he was wearing. Zim cursed in Irken before turning to the stove to start dinner.

He could hear Liz laughing in the living room as he struggled to scrub the burnt noodles from the bottom of the pan without getting wet while Gir ran around his legs singing the doom song at the top of his lungs (or circuitry?)

Zim moaned as his squidly spooch growled, normally he wouldn't have to eat every day, but his home base was the only building with the right equipment and sufficient power to recharge his PAK, several times he had resorted to using Liz's cell phone charger.

Zim left the pan in the sink and fell onto the couch with a sigh, Liz was still laughing. They both turned to the T.V. and zoned out for a while as some cartoon came on. Gir continued to chase the cat. They remained silent for almost a half an hour before Liz spoke up.

"I'll make you waffles if you'll tell me what you're doing," Zim looked at her blankely.


End file.
